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If you want to provide an information service that truly fulfils your users' needs, this book is essential reading. The book supports practitioners in developing an information needs analysis strategy and offers the necessary professional skills and techniques to do so.

Individuals need to survive and grow in changing and sometimes turbulent organizational environments, while organizations and societies want individuals to have the knowledge, skills and abilities that will enable them to prosper and thrive. Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is a means of coping with complex environmental changes and developments: it is a form of sophisticated career and life management. Personal Knowledge Management is an evolving concept that focuses on the importance of individual growth and learning as much as on the technology and management processes traditionally associated with organizational knowledge management. This book looks at the emergence of PKM from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and its contributors reflect the diverse fields of study that touch upon it. Relatively little research or major conceptual development has so far been focused on PKM, but already significant questions are being asked, such as 'is there an inherent conflict between personal and organizational knowledge management and how best do we harmonize individual and organizational goals?' This book will inform, stimulate and challenge every reader. By delving both deeply and broadly into its subject, the distinguished authors help all those concerned with 'knowledge work' and 'knowledge workers' to see how PKM supports and affects individuals, organizations and society as a whole; to better understand the concepts involved and to benefit from relevant research in this important area.

Purpose - The paper aims to explore the overall state of information and digital illiteracy (IDL) in developing countries and how it hampers the growth of individuals and nations. The case of Pakistan is to be used as an example to illustrate the endemic state of poor information and digital literacy. It also aims to discuss the general drawbacks to effective IDL in developing Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach - To achieve the objectives of the study, the literature review and result of Pakistan-based surveys are used to indicate the state of IDL among university students and faculty in one country while integrating these findings with discussion. Findings - It was found that in Pakistan, as elsewhere, IL/IDL practice and training are not the norm in libraries or in education; they are not operational priorities. The low level of IL/IDL among the educated classes contributes to the status quo of information illiterate citizens. It also establishes that becoming \"critical consumers\" of information is essential for personal and national empowerment. Originality/value - The study explores the overall status of IDL in the developing countries using case of Pakistan as example. It suggests conducting local research on contextually relevant literacies and IL/IDL. The paper invokes the appreciation for making IL/IDL an integral part of learning programmes at all levels. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Purpose - The purpose of this short paper is to focus on the parallel games of journal rankings and citation counts. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses journal ranking and citation procedures. Findings - Journal rankings can often reflect personal bias, and therefore can be flawed. Originality/value - The paper highlights the differences in ranking journals and citations, globally. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Purpose - The specific aim of this paper is to explore the multi-disciplinary academic antecedents of KM in order to better understand KM. By doing so, it is suggested that KM can be more effectively applied in real-world situations, such as professional occupations.Design methodology approach - The approach is conceptual: five core antecedents of KM - philosophy, sociology, psychology, computing and information systems, and management - are explored and associated with the criminal investigation process.Findings - KM antecedents can be applied to the professional discipline of criminal investigation to create a conceptual model of knowledge management for the criminal investigative process. The model offers guidance on ways in which KM can be understood in terms of the criminal investigative process.Research limitations implications - KM has been considered a somewhat nebulous subject, so there is value in exploring its multidisciplinary roots to gain a better understanding of it and how it can be more effectively applied in specific organizational or practitioner contexts.Practical implications - By mapping the KM antecedents to the criminal investigation process a conceptual model has been developed, which it is believed could prove useful in helping police organizations, as well as academics studying the criminal justice system, to better understand the discipline of KM in the context of law enforcement-related work.Originality value - While KM antecedents have been identified, the paper is one of the first to explicitly show how they can be used to link KM to real world situations - in this case the criminal investigative process.

Purpose - This paper aims to examine and then discuss the positive and negative influences of library manager styles on the engagement of Vietnamese university library staff in continuing education (CE) activities to improve their work performance.Design methodology approach - Based on the relevant literature, a preliminary contextual model of factors affecting CE for university library practitioners in Vietnam was developed. Using the model as a framework to guide the data gathering, 17 focus group interviews were held with operational staff and ten individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with library managers at ten public university libraries across Vietnam.Findings - Three main managerial styles were identified, i.e. directive, decisive and formalistic styles, each of which affected academic library staff CE in different ways. These styles were reflected in the ways the managers operated their libraries and assessed their staff, as well as in the ways they dealt with and coordinated CE activities.Research limitations implications - This research focused only on public university library staff and managers in Vietnam.Originality value - The paper demonstrates that different managerial styles influence the engagement of Vietnamese university library staff in CE activities in different ways, and recommendations are provided to help academic library managers, regardless of their location, establish strategies to support the development of their staff through participation in CE activities.

Purpose - This issue aims to look into the subject of citation counts and whether they have an impact on the articles being cited.Design methodology approach - Uses Selgens list of citations that have been counted within such areas as: review articles, long articles, short publications and research fields as an example.Findings - Finds that citation counts and impact factors can be easily manipulated.Originality value - Gives a strong view to a controversial subject.

Purpose - This paper aims to look into why there is an increasing number of library clients that are deserting their traditional knowledge store for something that is much more user-friendly - Google.Design methodology approach - The paper is based on the author's own knowledge and expertise.Findings - Opines that there is no contest in the head-to-head battle for information services supremacy and that Google Scholar, with its information \"now\" and \"fast\" beats others hands down.Originality value - This paper will be of interest to researchers and academics and those in the information field.

Purpose - This paper aims to look at the Oppenheim effect in scholarly journal publishing.Design methodology approach - Discusses the quality control of refereed scholarly journals.Findings - A key finding of this research was that editors perceived originality to be the most important factor in their assessment of manuscripts.Originality value - Provides a discussion on the quality control of scholarly journals.